Earrings are pieces of jewelry usually worn on the lower ear lobe, although it has become increasingly popular to wear them anywhere on the ear. The earring typically has a decorative face attached to a post which is mounted onto an ear lobe by placing the post through a piercing and affixing an ear-clutch onto the free end to prevent the post from slipping through. The ear lobe is then sandwiched between the decorative face and the ear-clutch.
According to the prior art, the ear-clutch can be screwed onto a threaded post or slid onto a post with an outer surface that may be smooth, notched or fluted. Usually, such a slide-on ear-clutch has a base plate with a center opening and a pair of bent-out fingers rolled into a circular shape and positioned so that a portion of that circular shape will frictionally engage the outer surface of a jewelry post when the post is pushed through the center opening in the base plate. When removing the jewelry or ornament, the ear-clutch must first be slid off the post with sufficient force to overcome the engagement friction. Doing so requires a spreading of the fingers to disengage the post. Constant spreading of the fingers over time causes the fingers to lose their elasticity, severely weakening the post-finger engagement, and therefore, the earring mount. Eventually, the post attached to the decorative face is prone to falling out unintentionally, which is why so many earrings and ear clutches are lost.
Broaches, lapel pins, hat pins, tie tacks and other forms of decorative pieces function in much the same way. Metal fingers engage a friction area on a post to secure a decorative face on a piece of fabric. The post pierces a piece of fabric, the lapel of a jacket, a hat, or a blouse, for example, and engages a clutch on the other side.
Such an arrangement is difficult to remove, especially if the wearer is not particularly adept at handling such small mechanical pieces. A man with large hands would have a difficult time removing a tie tack with such a post and finger arrangement, for example. Earrings are especially difficult by their very nature because the clutch is usually very small and behind the ear lobe, making it virtually impossible to see. Some attempts have been made to provide a securing clutch that is easier to use and more durable with better gripping strength.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,698,044 to Chernow purports to disclose a clutch mechanism for jewelry pins with a gripper portion with a flexible insert to handle the clutch. The flexible insert is encased in metal, making it difficult and expensive to manufacture.